Ex-Microsoft engineer gets seven years after trying to hire hitman for double murder
- Reference: 1712683812
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2024/04/09/microsoft_engineer_fake_hitman/
- Source link:
On October 27, 2021 Christopher Pence was arrested by FBI agents at his home in Cedar Creek, Utah, and subsequently admitted that in July and August of that year he had tried to recruit someone to kill “a couple targets husband wife that I am needing removed,” who were then living in Hoosick Falls, New York.
He provided names, addresses and photographs of the intended victims and requested that the killing be made to look like an accident, such as a robbery gone wrong. He specifically requested that any children not be harmed. A confidential source immediately passed the transcripts on the the FBI.
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"Pence's family had legally adopted five of the intended victims' children...there was an escalating dispute between the two families such that the intended victims desired to regain custody of their children and were involved in the reporting of Pence's family to local child welfare authorities, both of which reportedly angered Pence," stated FBI special agent Brian Decarr.
[2]PDF
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"Furthermore, Pence and the intended victims did not agree on how the children should be raised or the personal choices and lifestyle of the intended victims."
Pence made four Bitcoin transfers to the apparent assassin totaling around $16,000, but appears to have had a change of mind and tried to cancel the contract a few days later. He didn't get his money back but nor did he try to warn the potential victims, the government investigators noted.
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The FBI National Cyber Investigative Joint Task Force identified the cryptocurrency exchange used in the transactions and issued a request for information, and a subsequent grand jury subpoena. The exchange promptly coughed up Pence's full details, including a copy of his driving license, and the IP addresses used in transactions - 66 out of 67 of which were Pence's home address and the other to his mobile phone.
[6]Woman jailed after RentaHitman.com assassin turned out to be – surprise – FBI
[7]'Corrupt' cop jailed for tipping off pal to EncroChat dragnet
[8]Man hires 'court hacker' on Craigslist ... who turned out to be a cop
[9]McAfee – the completely sane guy, not the biz – told to fork out $25m over 'torture, murder' of his Belize neighbor
When interviewing the potential victims the couple reported recognizing some of the photographs Pence had sent to the apparent killer as being taken for commemorative "baby books" exchanged between the two families, Decarr noted.
After being arrested Pence admitted his crime to investigators and, when asked if he wanted anything from the house before being taken away, [10]reportedly answered "I'd like a time machine if you have it."
Pence's sister [11]set up a GoFundMe page to support the family after the arrest, noting that he "has been accused of a terrible crime that did not involve any harm or misconduct to the children or his wife and did not involve any infidelity." So far it has raised $3,420.
Despite his job with Microsoft Pence appears to have been particularly tech unsavvy - not only in expecting that you could actually hire a professional killer online, but also in seriously overestimating the anonymity of Bitcoin transactions and those that facilitate them.
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Pence, 43, admitted one count of use of interstate commerce facilities in the commission of a murder-for-hire plot and was sentenced to 84 months to prison by Judge David Norman Hurd in the District Court for the Northern District of New York. This will be followed by three years supervised release. ®
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[2] https://regmedia.co.uk/2024/04/09/fbi.pdf
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[6] https://www.theregister.com/2023/11/07/hitman_for_hire_jail/
[7] https://www.theregister.com/2023/11/04/corrupt_cop_encrochat/
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2015/11/04/craigslist_hcker_prison/
[9] https://www.theregister.com/2019/03/20/mcafee_25m_lawsuit_neighbor_death/
[10] https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13286293/Microsoft-engineer-Christopher-Pence-hitman.html
[11] https://www.gofundme.com/f/help-for-this-families-needs
[12] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33ZhW6hvMR7sC2fuBLePGnhwAAAA0&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[13] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Re: use of interstate commerce facilities in the commission of a murder-for-hire
If he, the hitman (or woman, it is the 21st century after all), their respective bank accounts, and/or the exchange site weren't all physically located in NY state, they could probably still stick him with that charge. It might be a fair bit weaker at trial, but I don't think the prosecution would care much since they have a pretty open and shut attempted murder charge. The interstate commerce thing would just be the bacon bits on the top of the salad.
Re: use of interstate commerce facilities in the commission of a murder-for-hire
If everything was in one state, the interstate charge would not apply and it would just be a murder case. This is a federal charge that adds to, not replaces, any other charges at the state level. In addition, if he was in New York at the time but the exchange or bank involved wasn't, the interstate charge still applies.
Couple of things
1) The fact that he shares a last name with the former VP is just priceless
2) This is almost as funny as if he used that Rent-a-Hitman site which continues to get solicitations despite being pretty obvious it's a joke site
3) The statement for the sister's gofundme is... interesting
4) Sounds like the children are the real losers in this as their biological parents sound like dicks and their adoptive parents (well, father at least) is an idiot almost worthy of a world's dumbest criminals TV show
5) Credit for the guy's comment as he's being perp walked out of his house, the judge should knock one or two hours off his sentence for the humor value
Re: Couple of things
It sounds as if he has a weak grap of reality.
Child Protective Services
How would one get in contact with them regarding this. It wasn't stated if they still have custody over the adopted children but I'm pretty sure being convicted of soliciting murder for hire excludes you from being an adoption parent.
Headlines
Couldn't we get a better headline on this one? Something like:
"Working at Microsoft drives man to hire hitman"
What a moron!
This guy is stupid. Deep down incurably stupid.
Aside from the moronic attitude which thinks that having people killed is a good solution, putting his bitcoin in an exchange wallet is just dumb to start with. Using that identifiable bitcoin to pay for a non-existent hit man is cosmically stupid. Thinking that you can hire a real hit man using the Internet or the Darknet makes him Darwin award material.
That anyone would donate to his sister's gofundme just goes to prove how many equally stupid people there are out there.
use of interstate commerce facilities in the commission of a murder-for-hire
So if he had gone to a Starbucks in New York, or used a VPN to send the money within New York, he wouldn't have done anything wrong ?